Amazing story in Forbes from January, about how a burgeoning wind turbine industry in the Tehachapis may be shut down by the possibility that a wind turbine could kill an endangered California Condor. At this point it’s unknown whether the federally protected bird, which can fly some 200 miles in a day, will avoid hugeContinue reading “Wind turbines threaten condors — or is it vice versa?”
Category Archives: thinking out loud
Midwestern Heat Wave: Attribute to global warming?
A Climate Central reporter tries to tease out the contribution of climate change to the unprecedented heat wave in the Midwest, mentioned above, but the attribution studies have yet to be done, and many questions remain. For instance, the extraordinary leap in temperatures this month in places like Michigan is due in part to theContinue reading “Midwestern Heat Wave: Attribute to global warming?”
Climate: If it’s not a crisis, newspapers can’t be bothered
Talked to my mom last night, and mentioned to her that the Midwest is experiencing a heat wave the likes of which no one alive has ever really seen. The experts have been floored for a week. It's "unprecedented." Thousands of records broken. Jeff Masters' weather historian: "It's almost like science fiction –" BillContinue reading “Climate: If it’s not a crisis, newspapers can’t be bothered”
Is “The Descendants” as grand a movie as “Tree of Life?”
Elbert Ventura in Slate argues that The Descendants is a great movie, despite its too-pretty-to-be-true Hawaian setting. Don’t let the soothing uke and sun-dappled sadness fool you—The Descendants is no less interested in the cosmic than that exegete’s delight The Tree of Life. He argues that we overlook its soaring depiction of the natural world, with nature'sContinue reading “Is “The Descendants” as grand a movie as “Tree of Life?””
NSA “to watch everybody all the time” on line
The great James Bamford writes another deeply sourced expose of the NSA, this time for Wired magazine, about an unbelieveably massive, costly, and unconstitutional National Security Agency spy center under construction in Utah (and a twin at Oak Ridge, Tennessee). You won't see better journalism this year, and really should read the whole thing. Here'sContinue reading “NSA “to watch everybody all the time” on line”
The beauty of nature fading away: Haruki Murakami
In the best speech I have read since the last Vaclav Havel speech I read, Haruki Murakami reflects on the tsunami that hit Japan a year ago and "mujo" — the fading of beauty. If we think about nature, for example, we cherish the cherry blossoms of spring, the fireflies of summer and the redContinue reading “The beauty of nature fading away: Haruki Murakami”
Reworking unemployment (oh, and the payroll tax cut)
From a front-page New York Times story today. Here are the details that were hidden in the fight over the payroll tax cut and the unemployment (UI) extension. Congress and the President agreed on some shockingly good ideas, including importing the concept of "work sharing" from (no!) Europe. The bill additionally expands “work sharing” programs thatContinue reading “Reworking unemployment (oh, and the payroll tax cut)”
CA Fish and Game proposes regs to save sea bass species
Here's my story from the Santa-Barbara Independent. I thought the quote below was the memorable from the hearing, from one of the agency's commissioners at the hearing, about the dangers of fishing aggregations of spawning fish. Fishing massed groups of spawning fish can mislead anglers into unwittingly devastating a fish population in real trouble, aContinue reading “CA Fish and Game proposes regs to save sea bass species”
Multi, Extremely, and Totally Drug-Resistant TB: TDR-TB
Sometimes change is easier to hear in language than it is to contextualize in reality. My meager understanding of tuberculosis cannot be expected to grade the seriousness of the news that several new strains of the disease have been found in populations in India and Iran. This sounds alarming, but after all, medical researchers haveContinue reading “Multi, Extremely, and Totally Drug-Resistant TB: TDR-TB”
Take Shelter — the birds are falling (again)
2012 opens with news of blackbirds falling dead from the sky in Arkansas — again. Thousands of dead blackbirds rained down on a town in central Arkansas last New Year's Eve after revelers set off fireworks that spooked them from their roost, and officials were reporting a similar occurrence Saturday as 2012 approached. Police inContinue reading “Take Shelter — the birds are falling (again)”
Kit Stolz 